Integrated Marketing Communications: Strategies and Techniques
What is IMC?
Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) is the coordinated integration of all marketing communication tools, avenues, and sources within a company into a seamless program. This program maximizes impact on consumers and other end-users at a minimal cost.
IMC encompasses business-to-business, channel, customer, external, and internal communications, ensuring they are connected and synchronized for a clear and consistent message.
3 C’s:
Clear, Consistent, Compelling (attractive)
Communications
Strategic Marketing: Growth, Segmentation & Branding
Growth-Share Matrix
Cash Cows
Low Growth, High Share: Companies should capitalize on these established products to generate revenue for reinvestment.
Stars
High Growth, High Share: Invest significantly in these high-potential products to maximize future returns.
Problem Children
High Growth, Low Share: Strategically invest in or divest these products based on their potential to become stars.
Dogs
Low Growth, Low Share: Liquidate or reposition these underperforming products.
Marketing Planning
Pros: Increased
Read MoreSystematic and Non-Systematic Factors Influencing Stock Performance
Systematic Factors
Monetary Factors
Interest Rates: Central banks, responsible for macroeconomic policy, control investment types during periods of price increases (inflation) and decreases. When interest rates increase, investors often move away from the stock market and opt for fixed income. When interest rates decrease, it encourages investment in the stock market as companies incur lower costs, thus increasing consumption and positively affecting company performance.
Currency Valuation: This
Read MoreUnderstanding Market Institutions and Credit Systems
Institutions of the Market
Central Bank
The Central Bank is responsible for issuing currency and operating monetary policy. It balances the money supply to control inflation, typically keeping it between 2-4% annually in a capitalist economy. Deflation (falling prices) is undesirable as it indicates low consumer spending.
Commercial banks also issue currency. The government encourages lending to increase currency supply and restricts lending to decrease it.
Basic Functions
The Central Bank’s core functions
Read MoreUnderstanding Wage Supplements and Employment Contracts
Non-Wage Remuneration Examples
Here are three examples of non-wage remuneration:
- Compensation and work-related supplies (currency breakdown, work clothes, travel expenses, and transportation).
- Compensation for death by marriage.
- Salaries received by workers in goods or services other than money (e.g., house, car). These perks may not exceed 30% of the worker’s total remuneration.
Wage Rates
Wage rates are determined in response to:
- Fixed benefits
- Variable performances
- Means of payment: Cash benefits and
Company Planning and Organization: Structure, Processes, and Strategies
Planning
What is Planning?
For companies to operate effectively, they need to plan, organize, manage, and control all available resources. This crucial task falls under the purview of management planning. Planning involves setting objectives, devising strategies to achieve them, defining policies, and establishing decision-making criteria. These objectives must meet three key conditions:
- Realistic and Achievable: Objectives should be attainable and grounded in reality.
- Prioritized: Clear priorities